Week 63

April 25- May 1 "Getting Kissed by Benjamin"

Peggy is doing good, she has some problems in her get a long every now and then, but hey I treat her good. We don't cook, well, I don't cook. I normally just make two Pb and J sandwiches drink some milk and go, my comp makes eggs from a carton of egg whites and he eats that. The food is kinda the normal mix of your Latino stuff. Nothing too weird. 

Monday we were just running everywhere. My laundry bag has a huge rip in it so I called up some other elders to help us out with laundry. Elder H said that he has 2 laundry bags so he will let me have one of his. We shopped and then emailed, and then played some sports. It was really sad because we didn't have a basketball, or an inflated soccer ball, so what do 3 white missionaries (my companion slept during this time) do? Well they find a good ole football and toss around the pigskin. We then had a competition to see who could punt it the highest (we were outside don't worry) and so we timed it. Elder T, a very tall elder was able to get 3.03 seconds in the air. FYI we timed from when you kicked the ball to when it made first contact. Elder H got up to 3.42 seconds and Elder Roberts was able to get to 3.56 seconds. We were all trying to break 4 seconds, ridiculous right? It's funny cause professional football players can get like 8 seconds no big deal hahaha. After that we went to work. We tried to contact a couple people at their doors and one lady was home and answered the door. We talked to her and she said that she would like it if we could come by again sometime. We shared a quick message with her, said a prayer, and then left. We ate dinner at the D L family's house. They have a son who is on a mission, and a daughter who is a member, but the parents are not members. The daughter is also living with her boyfriend who is not a member (problem). We had a good lesson with them. They said that they want to start up again and everything, but I think if the daughter just started to come back to church, all of them will follow. We then had this really high lady stop us on our way back home and she was saying some crazy stuff, apparently she has seen Jesus! It was a pretty interesting time.

Tuesday we got a call from the sister missionaries saying that we have a Gladys Knight referral. Now Gladys Knight held a devotional in our mission last Saturday and it basically was a huge push for the English elders, and nothing for the Spanish program. We were really excited because there are specific steps that we have to take when we receive a Gladys Knight referral. The main thing is deliver a gift that we put together and the person requested. The gift consists of a Book of Mormon, a red pencil, a Gladys knight cd, a restoration movie, and some scripture study topics. The sisters showed us the referral and I was so sad. Apparently what had happened with the referral is this: we originally got it on Monday, looked and saw that it was in Elder L's area, so we sent it to them. They then thought that it was in the sister's area and sent it to them, and then it made its way back to us. It was a little sad, but I'm glad everyone now knows that it is is Elder L's area. We went to go visit the Bravo family and talked to the son for a big. He is a total gamer and nerd, so it is right up my ally. We talked to him about helping his family go to church because they are inactive and some of their family members are not members. Hermana B then gave us some soup to eat (in the middle of the summer when it's blazing hot outside... Latinos I tell you). We then stopped by the D L's to read with them for a little bit. We read the introduction and answered some questions that they had. After that we had coordination at the church and that was good. On our way home my companion just totally fell off his bike and ate it. I heard a big crashed and I looked behind me to see my companion on the floor. He told me that he didn't know what happened, he just fell. There was no bump, no nothing, his bike just came out from under him, and that's what ended the night.

Wednesday we had temple service early in the morning. We woke up at 5 so that we could get ready in our normal clothes and bike to the church so that way we could get a ride to the temple. Normal clothes are so weird! They are a little uncomfortable I think. We worked on the apartment complexes behind the visitor center and the temple, the ones that are SUPER nice. People who live in those apartments are the senior missionaries, temple workers, sometimes visitors, and some sister missionaries. Those apartments are crazy. They have a TV (I don't think the sisters have it though) new fridge, new stove, new microwave, nice floors, new sink, beds, the whole thing. And that's what we were putting into the rooms. It was nice because there were other missionaries who were helping that I knew so it was fun. One of the elders named Elder M is super cool and awesome and he was imagining if we were companions... That would be crazy. After that we came home and idk what happened. My companion physically shut down that he was just off. He was tired and worn out from the service and I was a little anxious because I still don't know the area and he has everything on his iPad and I don't, because he is the one with the plans. It is just really frustrating sometimes. We then went to go and visit A C and he daughter. A is a recent convert of my trainer and I was really looking forward to the lesson. We had a doorstep lesson with the daughter because there wasn't a man home and Ana was doing laundry down the street. The daughter has gone through a lot of stuff in her life. She has had lots of problems with the Word of Wisdom and that has affected her immediate family and her kids. She is getting over it now. She still smokes about 2 cigarettes a day, but from where she was, she has progressed a lot. We set up another time to come by. We then went by to see L R. Her family had a baptismal date right when I came here, but they never were able to meet with us so we decided to give them one last chance for us to keep visiting them, because we don't want to waste our time to stop by every now and then if they don't want us to stop by right? Anywho the dad was there and he told us that we could come back by on Thursday. We then ate dinner with the F family. They have a son, or a neighbor named W who is a less active. I don't know the whole story because my companion doesn't really explain things to me. William is having a hard time coming to church, so we talked with him a bit and he is a really cool guy. We then ate dinner and called it a night.

Thursday was a packed day. We started out with E. We went back over the Plan of Salvation and focused on baptisms for the dead. We answered some of the questions that he had and talked for a bit, it was good. We then went and taught C, the less active. She had some crazy things to talk about, like ghosts and crazy freaky cats... Yikes. She also told us that she doesn't know if her records are in the church so she might need to be baptized again. We then went to go and visit the C's. They are super cool. So cool that they even have a dog named Benjamin aka Benji that totally reminds me of a combo of Jack and Duke. They gave us some food and that was really nice of them because we didn't have any dinner plans for that day. They are a really cool family, just awesome. After that we visited L R who is an investigator along with her family. They haven't been progressing a lot, but it's super frustrating because they know basically everything! Ugh! Anywho, we will try to keep working with them and see where that takes us. After that we tried to go and visit some other people but they weren't home either.

Friday we went to go and see the B family after District Meeting and they are doing good, is time we tried to read with them in the Book of Mormon and it went well, kinda hahaa. We are going to skype with that family. After that we went to go and see S she is super cool and chill. Maybe that's because she use to be a druggy and now she's just wanting to be a good mom to her kids, but either way she is awesome and I love it when we go and visit with her. She is doing good. After that we saw the R family again and they seemed so solid that they were coming to church, it was so amazing! (I'm sorry this paragraph is so short, it's just that I can't remember too much of the details of what happened that day)

Saturday it was so amazing to wake up to get dressed to attend M's baptism! We had called the C's, they are a recent convert family, to give us a ride, which was super nice of them! You know when you stress out too much when you planned that traffic would take a ridiculous amount of time, so you stressed out when the C's showed up 30 minutes late, but then you showed up to the baptism 30 minutes early... Yes I am a bad planner it seems. The baptism was so awesome! I was able to see some of the Samoan members and they remembered me! Man I felt so good. M was all smiles during the whole thing. Her mom kept apologizing to everyone that she is less active and she kept apologizing to me that it took forever to get M baptized, we just laughed it off. Elder S baptized M and Elder B and I gave the missionary moment. I'm not gonna lie, that was probably the best child baptism for an investigator ever. Bishop M was so awesome when he was explaining baptism and talking to M, oh it was wonderful. I snagged a picture on my camera so I will hopefully send that off. Everyone then went to Hometown Buffet, but we didn't go because we had to get back to out area with the C's. They had brought their dog, Benjamin, in the car so on the road we would pet him. I think he is a cocker spaniel- shi tzu mix, which made me miss my puppies even more. The C's treated us out to subway which was really nice, and then I fell asleep on the car ride back to the apartment. I was woken up by Benjamin giving me a kiss. We went back to the apartment, changed out of our suits, and headed out for the day. We tried to visit some people that said we could come by, but they weren't home so that was sad. We went to go and visit C, but as we were visiting with her, we determined that it would be better for her and her family if they were to attend the English Ward. Because C doesn't speak Spanish fluently and her kids only understand English. So we referred her to the English elders. We ended up talking to this man named A. It is really hard to understand him because it seems like he mumbles and slurs all his words together, like to the max. We knocked on his door because he was a former investigator, he let us in and we talked with him for a little bit. He expressed concerns about how in the past the missionaries told him that he needed to be baptized again, but that he didn't understand why. He also expressed concerns about coffee, and how he doesn't see it as such a bad thing when he only drinks it maybe 1-2 times a day. He also expressed concerns about attending church in Sundays. During the lesson we simply told him that all of his questions can be answered if he prays and reads the Book of Mormon to know if it is true. Because if it is true, then the questions that he has will be resolved. He seemed somewhat apprehensive about reading, so we will see what happens from there. We then ate dinner with the R family. They are super cool. They are from Honduras or Nicaragua and they have the Spanish lisp. They also have a daughter who is serving a mission in Costa Rica right now. They are a cool family. We stopped by a less active family called the Castro family. The son was only there so we talked with him for a bit. Afterwards we just went home to end the night.

Sunday was a little depressing. We had so many investigators say that they would come to church, around 10 investigators, and so of course we are just waiting the whole time for them to show up. We brought the paper area books to church so that the Zone leaders could go and destroy the paper copy, idk burn it or something. Church started and it is the classic Latino Ward hahaha, we will just put it that way. Some missionaries who returned home a while ago came back and visited and it was super weird to see them. After church we broke our fast and then tried to hit the ground running. We stopped by some people who told us to come back by, but they weren't home... Ugh. We then went to read a little bit with I D L. She is doing good, she is really just a dry Mormon because her son is even on a mission right now! We read with her and then went to go and see E. We read with him too and that was good. We finished off the night with a dinner at the Bindel home. We then taught M B about the Word of Wisdom because he drinks coffee. He seemed pretty adamant about not giving it up, but then we talked with him for a bit and he was like alright. 

Well, keep me posted on everything!

Love,

Elder Roberts